LCA Naval Fighter Jet advances with a Tail Hook to land on Aircraft Carriers

After multiple reports that the Indian Navy has shelved the LCA Navy Fighter Jet, a new picture of the Naval Fighter Jet has surfaced with an arrester tail hook. LCA Naval prototype 2 successfully carried out flight operation from INS Hansa in Goa with a tail hook meant to land on aircraft carriers.

The latest in the series, the LCA Naval Fighter jet took off from the Indian Navy’s Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) which mimics aircraft carriers. Pilots and aircrafts operating on aircraft carriers are trained and tested on such platforms.

Mission system computers have been integrated on the LCA Navy and will now undergo thorough testing by HAL and Indian Naval officials. The funding of the Naval program is coming from the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy to locally develop carrier capable naval fighter jets for future Indian Aircraft Carriers.

There were reports that the Indian Navy had cancelled inducting the LCA Navy into their fleet and had instead asked HAL to focus on the 5th generation navalised version of AMCA which is currently in design stage. Indian Air Force’s LCA MK-2 will be renamed to Medium Combat Fighter (MCF) due to a larger air frame and increase in take-off weight which puts the fighter in the medium category.
The LCA can house two pair of Israeli made Python Heat Seeking and Derby WVR Missiles. or some Four Long Range Astra BVR having some 80 Kilometers Range along with decent Jamming and Defensive Suites the Tejas can Perform decent CAP over the Carrier battle Group for Some 400 Kilometer Circle and Flying over 2 hours Continuously along with the Support of one or Two Ka 27 Early warning Helicopters. Only It’s need a Buddy Refuel from an MiG 29 K which can refuel the LCA’s once Take off from the Carrier some 8 of the LCA Need 2 MiG 29 K Refueler to Complete the Task.

The LCA and the Mig 29 can provide Limited Close Air Support to the Insertion team. If Indian Navy Plans to send a Battalion of Marine Troops into some Enemy Territories If they need to Neutralize the Enemy Columns the LCA or the Mig 29 can do it to advance our Troops into Enemy Territory.This one can be Achieved by Variety of our Air Brigades from Indian Navy ranging from Tu 142 to LCA . the LCA can equipped with some Three MBDA Spear on it’s Both wings or Some three GBU in both Wings the Spear is a Guided Missile and the GBU is the Guided Bomb unit

While Navy and Ministry of Defence (MOD) are still funding LCA Navy Program to create necessary technology required to develop a carrier-based LCA Navy MK2 aircraft which actually will go into production and serve on Indian Aircraft carriers like INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant.

Navy changed its mind a few years back and instead asked for the development of Naval variant of 5th generation AMCA fighter jet which is still at the design stage and is at least 12-15 years away from entering production. IAF’s LCA MK-2 Project now called Medium Combat Fighter (MCW) due to increase in its Maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) puts the aircraft in a Medium weight category and will go on to replace Mirage-2000 and Mig-29 in IAF.

The second stage of the LCA project involves building two Mk 2 flight test articles – NP-3 and NP-4, both in a single-seater configuration. The concept design of the definitive Mk 2 version is understood to have been completed. The Mk 2 is, in essence, a major redesign of the Mk 1 for enhanced mission performance and improved maintainability.The Mk 2 will incorporate a more powerful General Electric F-414 INS6 engine as well as landing gear, arrestor hook, and internal layout developments, a reduced nose droop to improve aerodynamic performance, and other drag reduction features.

It will also feature a fuel dump system, increased fuel capacity, a retractable inflight refueling probe, and an onboard oxygen generation system.The avionics suite will feature the new Uttam active electronically scanned array (AESA) multimode radar, an upgraded flight control computer, and an improved cockpit layout. Defensive systems will be enhanced with a new integrated electronic warfare suite.

The Indian Navy is keenly watching the development of the LCA Naval Fighter. Based on the development of technologies inducted into the platform, the Navy might place an order for a few limited fighters to fill the void.